Boston Mayor Denounces Chick-Fil-A

Boston mayor Thomas M. Menino wrote an official letter from his office to the President and CEO of Chick-Fil-A, denouncing the company’s stance on gay marriage and urging it not to locate to Boston.

This letter comes as a response to Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s statement that his company is only supportive of “the biblical definition of the family unit.”

Read the full letter here:

To Mr. Cathy,

In recent days, you said Chick-fil-A opposes same-sex marriage and said the generation that supports it has an “arrogant attitude.”

Now — incredibly — your company says you are backing out of the same-sex marriage debate. I urge you to back out of your plans to locate in Boston.

You called supporters of gay marriage “prideful.” Here in Boston, to borrow your own words, we are “guilty as charged.” We are indeed full of pride for our support of same sex marriage and our work to expand freedom to all people. We are proud that our state and our city have led the way for the country on equal marriage rights.

I was angry to learn on the heels of your prejudiced statements about your search for a site to locate in Boston. There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it. When Massachusetts became the first state in the country to recognize equal marriage rights, I personally stood on City Hall Plaza to greet same sex couples coming here to be married. It would be an insult to them and to our city’s long history of expanding freedom to have a Chick-fil-A across the street from that spot.

Sincerely,

Thomas M. Menino
Mayor, City of Boston 

Technically, nowhere in this letter does the mayor say he actually “bans” Chick-Fil-A from locating to Boston; he does, however, strongly reject the idea. What that really means, we do not yet know.

Here are some questions to think about:

Should there be a separation between a CEO’s political/social beliefs and the legality of his company? Is the mayor of Boston overstepping the boundaries of his office? In a supposedly democratic nation, does it worry you that one man can have this type of control — over the ventures of a commercial business?